Up to 60 feared drowned in Lake Albert boat disaster

March 23, 2014 4:10 am

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By AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Rescue mission looking out for migrants/FILEKAMPALA, Mar 23 – As many as 60 people are feared to have drowned when a boat capsized on Lake Albert on the border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, reports said Saturday.

Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper said the boat, travelling between two districts in western Uganda, capsized shortly before midday Saturday.

“We have also recovered 19 bodies but we expect more bodies,” local official Oscar Chunyai was quoted as saying. He added that dozens more people had been rescued by fisherman who saw the accident.

The boat was reportedly carrying 100 people, many of them refugees from the DRC, The New Vision newspaper said, adding that 15 bodies of children had also been recovered.

The number rescued so far pointed to a potential death toll of anywhere between up to 50 or 60 dead, Ugandan media reports said.

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